Cen-sor, n.  A person authorized to examine books, films, or other material and to remove or suppress what is considered morally, politically, or otherwise objectionable.

For much of the time since being elected, I have been asked by the Los Angeles Times-owned Daily Pilot (yes, the same Los Angeles Times that refuses to release the Obama-Ayers-Khalidi destroy Israel love fest video) to write short opinion pieces for their “That’s Debatable” feature.   The “That’s Debatable” comes with a short word count limit, usually 150 words, to which I always comply.

Several times over the past few years, after asking for my opinion, the Daily Pilot unilaterally edits my pieces, changing the meaning and content of my opinion.  Every time this has happened, I call or email Paul Anderson, the Daily Pilot’s editor, to complain.  I usually say to Paul that, unlike one of his staff writers, I should not have my opinion pieces subject to editing without my permission.  A staff writer is supposed to write an unbiased account of something that happened - I was asked for my opinion as an elected official, if the paper changes my response, then the readers don’t see my opinion.

When a political statement is changed by someone else empowered to make that change, we call that censorship.  While writing for the American University in Cairo campus newspaper in Egypt 24 years ago,  I once had a piece on the Egypt-Israel peace treaty completely expunged by the paper - that was an extreme version of censorship.  Now, I never expected to have censorship happen to me in America, but today, after at least the sixth time the Daily Pilot has cut my “That’s Debatable” column to shreds, I’m beginning to wonder.   What happened?

Along with my Democrat opponent, I was asked to submit a “That’s Debatable” piece of no more than 150 words on the Governor’s proposed Lottery modernization proposal.  My submitted piece was 149 words.  Imagine my shock and disappointment when I see that my submitted piece was cut by 1/3 to 103 words while my liberal lawyer opponent’s piece weighed in at 183 words - 33 over the proscribed limit!  I guess the liberal media needed to trim my piece by 46 words so my Democrat opponent could have the extra space for 33 words.  So, not only did the Daily Pilot cut my opinion (is it still my opinion then?) they managed to give my opponent almost double the space to make his case.  Liberal media bias?  Or just editorial sloppiness?  Imagine if, during a debate, my opponent and I were asked for two minute responses to questions.  In the middle of my two minute response, the moderator turns off my microphone for 40 seconds, then turns around and gives my opponent my 40 seconds.   That’s what happened over at the Daily Pilot.

Here’s the actual “That’s Debatable” column in today’s newspaper.

Below that is my email to Pilot editor Paul Anderson.

THAT’S DEBATABLE:
How to handle poor lottery sales?
State lottery ticket sales dipped again this year, worrying school officials who depend on the revenue, and raising questions about Gov. Schwarzenegger’s plan to borrow against future lottery revenue. State Supt. of Schools Jack O’Connell said officials should consider other ways to raise money, but the governor is confident that new lottery games will help goose profits. What should be done about lagging lottery sales?

The state-run lottery adds very little to education — about 1% of total K-12 spending. Many Californians erroneously think the lottery has solved education funding needs.

So, can the governor’s plan to contract out lottery operations help the budget? Yes. But at what cost to those who can least afford to play a game with poor odds?

Rather than expand the lottery, we should open up California’s territorial waters to new oil leases using modern slant drill methods from inland locations. We have more than 1 billion barrels of oil we know about in California’s waters. The royalty revenue would exceed any lottery scheme.

Chuck DeVore

Assemblyman

(R-Newport Beach)

It is absurd to promote gambling in order for kids to get a good education and satisfying jobs, which should help them avoid cheap thrills like gambling.

Before we can persuade the public to support more funding for education or increasing sales taxes, we have to convince the public that it is getting a good return on its investment.

Most of the public in the 70th Assembly District believes in quality education. They also believe that, for the most part, our schools are doing a good job, so they don’t see the need to increase taxes. But allowing weaker, less-productive schools to fail will affect O.C. schools.

Proposition 13 must be revised to fund local schools and government. We can keep protection for residential property and allow the market to dictate values and tax rates for other property.

Yes, it means higher property taxes for some. However, state sales and income taxes are among the highest in the nation, while property taxes rank 45th! It is not about “spreading the wealth.” It is about balancing revenue sources for all government services!

Michael Glover

Democratic candidate for 70th Assembly District

Email from Chuck DeVore to Daily Pilot editor Paul Anderson:

Subject: Paul, you have got to be kidding me

Look, you know as well as I do that most folks in print journalism today are liberal. That said, I always try to get my message out with a smile.

Today’s “That’s Debatable” takes the cake, however.  After repeated edits by your paper of my responses when it is always within the proscribed word count, and repeated assurances from you that it will not happen again — well, it’s happened again.  You wrote and asked me to submit a commentary that was 125-150 words max.  I did.  As I recall, I submitted a piece that was 149 words. So, imagine my “surprise” when I see that my piece was cut by 1/3 to 103 words, while my opponent’s piece is almost twice the length at 181 words — 31 more than the maximum you specified to me.  This is ridiculous!

I don’t even know why I try any more.

I’ll be calling you Thursday morning.  I cannot continue to have my “opinion” edited by someone who does not share my political views. 

Update at 12:45 pm on Oct. 30th:

Here is the original 147 word piece for the Daily Pilot.  I was told that my unedited piece would be put up on their website a couple of hours ago.  As of 11:52 am, it has not.  Notice how the eliminated lead paragraph expresses my reservations for the impact a lottery has on the poor – obviously a concern that the media does not like to associate with conservative Republicans such as myself.

I’ve never been a fan of a government-run lottery – at best, it is harmless entertainment, at worst, it is a tax on those who are bad with math or who can least afford to play.

Further, the state-run lottery adds very little to education — about 1% of total K-12 spending. Many Californians erroneously think the lottery has solved education funding needs.

So, can the governor’s plan to contract out lottery operations help the budget? Yes. But at what cost to those who can least afford to play a game with poor odds?

Rather than expand the lottery, we should open up California’s territorial waters – three miles and in – to new oil leases using modern slant drill methods from inland locations. We have more than 1 billion barrels of oil we know about in California’s waters (8 billion in federal). The royalty revenue would exceed any lottery scheme.

Chuck DeVore
Assemblyman
(R-Newport Beach)

Gallup and GWU/Battleground show a 2 and 3 point race, respectively, plus a strong correlation to Wall Street moves.  This begs the question, will the stock market and Joe the Plumber team up to help Sen. John McCain win this election?

Gallup’s traditional measure is down to 2 points for Obama.

You can easily see how Gallup’s biggest margins for Obama correspond with really bad days on Wall Street having occurred just before polling and vice versa.  This is clearly visible for all three of the wide margins Obama enjoyed after the market dips of 9-10 Oct, 15-17 Oct., and 22-24 Oct.

The George Washington University (GWU) / Battleground poll shows a similar link to the stock market, with Obama’s best marks coming during the main market meltdown.

With the Dow going up 11 percent today, will Gallup show a dead even race by the end of the week?  Will that be enough to offset what may have been an early vote advantage for Obama?  If the market holds steady, it may indeed be a very long night on November 4th.  As they say, it’s not over ’til it’s over.

Keep the faith and keep working hard.   McCain/Palin - http://www.johnmccain.com

Legislative rankings came in from a few groups over the last week.  Since the press doesn’t cover public policy as much as it used to, here are some rankings for the Orange County delegation.

 

The California Chamber of Commerce is a broad-based business group.  A higher score signals a lawmaker who is more in favor of hard work and private initiative, as opposed to big government and higher taxes.

 

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore-R: 15-0, 100%

Assemblyman Mike Duvall-R: 15-0, 100%

Assemblyman Jim Silva-R: 15-0, 100%

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer-R: 15-0, 100%

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters-R: 15-0, 100%

Senator Tom Harman-R: 14-0, 100%

Senator Dick Ackerman-R: 13-0, 100%

Assemblyman Van Tran-R: 13-0, 100%

Senator Mark Wyland-R, 12-0, 100%

Assemblyman Bob Huff-R: 14-1, 93%

Senator Lou Correa-D, 9-4, 69%

Assemblyman Jose Solorio-D: 3-12, 20%

Assemblyman Tony Mendoza-D: 2-13, 13%

 

The full report from the CalChamber may be seen at: http://www.calchamber.com/GovernmentRelations/Documents/10-10-08_voterecord.pdf

 

 

The California Manufacturers and Technology Association (CMTA) has similar interests to the CalChamber, but with a specific focus on the manufacturing sector.  The CMTA has had a lot to be concerned about in recent years as California continues to hemorrhage manufacturing jobs to other states and nations due to high energy, tax, and regulatory burdens.  Note: the one vote that most Republicans were scored down and all Democrats scored up on was AB 2855 by Loni Hancock (D-Berkeley) that funded high schools to teach so-called “Green Technology.”

 

Senator Mark Wyland-R, 11-0, 100%

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore-R: 10-1, 91%

Assemblyman Mike Duvall-R: 10-1, 91%

Senator Tom Harman-R: 10-1, 91%

Assemblyman Jim Silva-R: 10-1, 91%

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer-R: 10-1, 91%

Assemblyman Van Tran-R: 10-1, 91%

Senator Dick Ackerman-R: 9-1, 90%

Assemblyman Bob Huff-R: 9-2, 82%

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters-R: 9-2, 82%

Senator Lou Correa-D, 5-6, 45%*

Assemblyman Tony Mendoza-D: 1-10, 9%

Assemblyman Jose Solorio-D: 1-10, 9%

 

The CMTA’s online rankings may be seen at:

http://www.cmta.net/scorecard.php?house=S&vote_year=2008

 

*Sen. Correa’s votes were not posted online so I looked them up on the California Legislative Information site at: http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/bilinfo.html.

 

 

The Congress of California Seniors is one of many senior issues advocacy groups in Sacramento.  They favor more government involvement in assisting seniors.  All 20 bills they backed and rated in 2008 were authored by Democrats.

 

Assemblyman Tony Mendoza-D: 100%

Assemblyman Jose Solorio-D: 95%

Senator Lou Correa-D, 80%

Assemblyman Van Tran-R: 38%

Senator Tom Harman-R: 35%

Assemblyman Todd Spitzer-R: 35%

Senator Mark Wyland-R, 35%

Assemblyman Jim Silva-R: 30%

Assemblyman Chuck DeVore-R: 25%

Assemblyman Mike Duvall-R: 25%

Assemblyman Bob Huff-R: 20%

Assemblywoman Mimi Walters-R: 20%

Senator Dick Ackerman-R: 15%

Americans are expected to do plenty of things on the honor system, pay income taxes and vote, for instance.  Sadly, as income taxes have increased along with the power of our government to hand out benefits, the incentive to cheat on both taxes and elections has increased too. 

It is instructive to note that during the debate over the income tax 95 years ago, New York Congressman Sereno Payne-R, the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, quoted William Gladstone when he said the income tax would turn America into, “a nation of liars” – and that was with the then top rate of seven-percent!

 

Now with the federal budget at $3.1 trillion and along with that, unprecedented power to, “spread the wealth around,” as Senator Barack Obama so revealingly said last week, we have far more at stake in our elections than we did in 1913 when the federal budget was $344 million ($3.1 trillion is almost 10,000 times larger than $344 million).  $3.1 trillion can fund a lot of Marxist wealth redistribution schemes or Wall Street bailouts. 

 

So, is it any wonder that we have the radical community organizing labor group ACORN manufacturing hundreds of thousands of new “registered voters”?  Obama got his start as a Chicago “community organizer” by working with ACORN to register voters in 1992, then served as their lawyer in 1995. As a member of the board of Chicago’s Woods Fund, Obama helped to funnel more than $200,000 to ACORN.  This year, Obama’s campaign shelled out $832,000 to an ACORN subsidiary, calling the money a payment for “staging, sound, lighting” in federal campaign reports but later admitting the funds were for getting out the vote. 

 

The Los Angeles Times ran an illuminating piece on Oct. 20 about the ongoing criminal saga of Tyrone Freeman, president of the Service Employees International Union’s largest California local.  According to a criminal investigation by the U.S. Labor Department, the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office, Mr. Freeman’s non-profit charity forced workers to help several Democratic campaigns.  If true, this is a violation of the group’s non-profit status.  Whether any of the elections Mr. Freeman allegedly assisted with illegal help were close enough to be affected is unknown at this time. 

 

Meanwhile, the phenomenon of hundreds of millions of dollars of Internet credit card donations for Barack Obama opens up another election law fraud front.  Federal rules only require disclosure when a donation reaches $200.  The ease by which wealthy individuals, or even foreign nationals or governments, can bypass our 34-year-old disclosure rules is stunning.  Some tentative mainstream media investigations have already uncovered massive campaign finance fraud in Obama’s $300 million of online fundraising (see: “With tiny sums, fictitious donors pay campaigns online” in the Oct. 11 edition of the International Herald Tribune).  Computer technology makes it laughingly easy for cheating on a massive scale as it is quite simple to write a program to make a series of small online credit card donations so as to hide the true source of the money.  This, of course, was impractical back in the 1970s when the campaign donation disclosure law was written, since such donations would have had to have been individually mailed to a campaign as small checks. 

 

Now, with the race for president tightening up again, we have to hope, as pundit Dick Morris so eloquently put it last week, “that the election becomes close enough for the Democrats not to steal.”

As some of you know, I was invited on the Dr. Phil Show to debate California’s new law banning text messaging with the author of that law, Democrat State Sen. Joe Simitian.  Simitian was also the author of the law banning hand-held cell phone usage in a car.  I voted against both laws, seeing them as unnecessary since California has a blanket law on its books that makes it illegal to drive recklessly.

The one hour show entitled “Killer Texting” will air on CBS at 4pm this coming Thursday, Oct. 23 in Los Angeles (check your local station listings).

It was interesting seeing how a nationally syndicated show like this is put together.  I knew it would not be easy to present my commonsense-based opinion in a highly emotional setting – and this particular show did not disappoint.  Dr. Phil started with a 21-year-old nightmare from Texas who text messages some 4,000 times a month, driving down the road at 70 mph, steering with her knee while holding her BlackBerry with both hands.  Next, a mother of a 17-year-old girl who was killed by a cell phone user who blew through a red light while looking up an address (an activity which would still be legal under the current law and soon to be enforced text message ban).  Finally, the show featured a man injured during the Metrolink collision where the passenger train engineer was violating Metrolink rules by text messaging on the job.

By the time came for me and Sen. Simitian to debate, the in studio audience was not at all sympathetic.  Dr. Phil asked me why I opposed the bill.  I replied something along these lines:

Every proposed law starts out as someone’s good idea. But the laws are often blunt instruments.  In the case of the ban on text messaging, there are some basic problems.  First, California already has a tough reckless driving law with a penalty of five days in jail or, if you injure someone else, up to six months in jail.  The text message ban has only a small fine and it doesn’t even put points on your driver’s license.  Secondly, under the new law, it is still legal to dial a phone number – how can police tell the difference between dialing a number, which is legal, and text messaging, which is illegal?  Finally, if text messaging or using a hand held cell phone was so dangerous, why did the laws’ author exempt law enforcement personnel?  Do police have better brains than the rest of us?  Do they have gecko eyes that allow them to keep one eye focused on the road and another eye on the phone?  The fact is, according to a California Highway Patrol study, only 9 people were killed in California over an 18 month period due to distraction from using cell phones or texting.  More people were killed and injured due to messing with their radio or CD player and eating combined.

Sen. Simitian at some point interrupted me to make his points, saying that some people may make it home tonight because of the new law.  I refuted the study he cited and instead used the actual data from the CHP showing that texting is not statistically a big problem.

The Dr. Phil Show then showed a taped segment with a City of Cypress Police officer who was doing cell phone enforcement work.  He said that he usually could not see drivers using their cell phone or texting unless it was up to their ear.  He relied instead on observing the car to see if it was weaving.  Dr. Phil looked at me and said, “That was your point,” meaning my point that the existing reckless driving law was sufficient to the task.

I also mentioned how one of my staffers was pulled over by the Irvine Police Department a few days into the hand held cell phone ban.  The officer thought he was on his cell phone.  The problem was, he wasn’t!  He simply had his window open with his left elbow on the door frame and his left hand resting on his left ear while at a stop light.  The officer was prepared to issue a ticket until my staffer suggested he look at the call log which showed the last call being 20 minutes earlier.  The officer wasn’t happy, but my staffer didn’t get a ticket.

Sen. Simitian mentioned that the CHP was in favor of his new law.  Having dealt with the CHP’s legislative liaison, I know them to be mainly concerned with their own self-interest, rather than the larger and more important issue of liberty, which, after all, is what our government exists to protect.  I responded along these lines: of course the CHP supported the law, they don’t care about our liberties, they only want to make it easier to pull people over.

A few other points of interest: 1) New York has had a hand-held cell phone ban for longer than California and they now have 18 months of data that shows that the law has had no effect at all on driving habits or safety.  Californians are even now beginning to go back to their old habits as the novelty of the law wears off.  2) According to the CHP, California’s roads have never been safer – if using cell phones or texting was as big a hazard as some people say it is why haven’t our roads become more dangerous as more and more people have come to use cell phones?  3) Studies have shown no difference in reaction time between hand-held cell phones and hands-free cell phones – with one study indicating that hands-free devices were actually more dangerous.

To sum up, I don’t recommend texting while driving a moving car.  CHP data also shows that it can be distracting to eat, change a CD, or have children or pets in a car.  That said there are more dangerous things to do on the road and better things to ask our law enforcement personnel to spend their time on than issuing drivers tickets with a base fine of only $20.

(Almost) Unbelievable – the pro-tax, pro-big government, teachers’ union just gave $1 million to oppose traditional marriage.

 

In 27 years of political involvement, I’ve come close to seeing it all.  Today, I think I have.

 

The hyper-liberal California Teachers Association (CTA), ostensibly a group of professionals that is supposed to care about our children’s education, has just contributed $1 million against Proposition 8, the traditional marriage initiative.

 

Remarkable.

 

How can a union that purports to represent 330,000 California teachers justify giving $1,000,000 of teachers’ dues money to an initiative that has nothing to do with taxes or education?  Is it because they want more public school 1^st graders to go on field trips during the school day to participate in same-sex marriages as happened last week in San Francisco?  At the most basic level how does giving $1 million of dues money to support same-sex marriage increase teachers’ salaries or benefits?  It doesn’t, of course.

 

So, I have two recommendations for any teacher who is outraged by this. 

 

First, ask the CTA for a refund of your dues money that was not used for legitimate collective bargaining purposes.  In the case of the CTA, this equals about half of your dues money.  You can learn how to do this by going to this link: http://www.nrtw.org/special-legal-notice-california-teachers-how-get-least-300-refund-cta-nonbargaining-expenses.  If you write the letter by this November 15^th, you’ll get at least a $300 dues rebate for the portion of your dues that went to pay the $1 million for same sex marriage. 

 

Second, send a check for $300, the amount of your rebate, to the folks at www.Protectmarriage.com.  Or, use a credit card to donate at: https://www.icontribute.us/protectmarriage/initiative/splash.

 

By doing so, you’ll cancel out the assistance you have unwillingly given to overturn a few thousand years of common sense and successful human tradition.  You’ll also help counter the $250,000 given to the No on 8 side by PG&E, the electricity monopoly for northern California, and the $100,000 from actor Brad Pitt. 

The national weekly Human Events just published my piece on how your Republican lawmakers in Sacramento stood firm in preventing tax increases against all odds.  With the California economy leading the U.S. economy down — we now have the nation’s 3rd highest unemployment rate — the worst thing we could have done was to increase your taxes.  Please take the time to read the piece below.  It should make you proud of what your embattled state GOP lawmakers accomplished.

Unfortunately, all of our hard work may be undone early next year if we lose legislative seats on November 4th.  As a member of the leadership in the Assembly, I am confident we can hold these seats if everyone gets out to vote and if we are adequately funded.  We need your help.  I have to raise another $21,000 before November 4th so I can do my part to fully fund our targeted races.  Please help.  You can contribute with a credit card online at: https://www.completecampaigns.com/FR/contribute.asp?campaignid=Devore08 or send up to $3,600 the old-fashioned way by mailing a check to:

DeVore in ‘08
4790 Irvine Blvd., Suite 105-191
Irvine, CA 92620-1998

DeVore in ‘08 state ID# 1293544

By the way, our key targeted Assembly races are:

Friends of Abram Wilson, P.O. Box 3853, San Ramon, CA 94583
Danny Gilmore for Assembly, P.O. Box 2206, Hanford, CA 93232 (I mention Danny in my piece below)
John McCann for Assembly, 7185 Navajo Road, Suite L, San Diego, CA 92119
Freinds of Gary Jeandron, 82-360 Highway 111, Suite C-32, Indio, CA 92201
Jack Sieglock for Assembly, 1812 W. Kettleman Lane, Suite 1, Lodi, CA  95242

All the best,

Chuck DeVore

California State Assemblyman, 70th District

www.ChuckDeVore.com

www.facebook.com/pages/Chuck-DeVore/22771210763

California GOP Legislators Stop Billions in New Taxes by Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (more by this author) Posted 10/09/2008 ET Updated 10/09/2008 ET California’s massive $104 billion general fund budget was signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on September 23, a record 85 days into the new fiscal year. The standoff was long because the stakes were great: Would Californians be saddled with a rapidly growing government and higher taxes in economically slow times, or not? Against all odds, greatly outnumbered Republican lawmakers stood up to De